Oso Technologies unveiled its “smart” sensor, which tells users when to water their plants, through the online crowdfunding site Kickstarter on Jan. 4. Within hours, they had hundreds of backers and reached more than 22 percent of their funding goal.
“Up-front manufacturing costs are expensive, so Kickstarter will help us raise money to get the product into the hands of interested customers”
Oso is pursuing a Kickstarter campaign to manufacture its first batch of the Plant Link product.
Kickstarter.com allows companies like Oso to raise money for a project or product before it’s created. Interested individuals can financially back Plant Link at various levels, and if the project’s $75,000 goal is met, backers receive the version of the product that corresponds with their level of support, with pledges as low as $79.
Plant Link consists of a base station that plugs into an Internet connection, along with individual, wireless “links” that measure the soil moisture around a plant. A user places a small, cylindrical “link” in the ground near a plant, and it sends a signal to his or her computer and smartphone through the base station with a notification that it’s time to water.
In addition to these notifications, Oso has developed a smart valve add-on, which can water a user’s outdoor plants or lawn automatically when water levels are low. It will also provide an option to manually control the valve through a phone app.
Those interested in backing Plant Link can visit Oso’s Kickstarter page from Jan. 4 through Feb. 3 to support the project.
